VÉNISSIEUX, France — France on Monday formally banned the wearing of full veils in public places, becoming the first country in Europe to impose restrictions on a form of attire that some Muslims consider a religious obligation.

Public nudity is an example of the higher standard I was referring to. It's different than banning a specific garment.

But on the other hand, should governments be banning nudity? Nudity isn't inherently inciteful or dangerous like hate speech or yelling "fire" in a theater, so on some level, doesn't banning it also violate basic freedoms of expression, as distasteful as it is? Governments may reserve the legal right to ban it, but insofar as they do, isn't it self-contradictory, since governments exist to uphold and protect the rights enshrined in their foundational documents (Constitutions, etc)?

There are places in america where the ku klux klan is not allowed to publicly wear it's full hoods and masks, and that has passed constitutional muster despite the KKK being a chrisatian religious organization. I see no reason why the same rulings can't be used on islam.

This is way too eloquent a post to be left as a comment and I highly suggest you put it into a blog entry. I absolutely love hearing about incidents like this since I have a lot of blind and sight-impaired friends and some of the obstacles created for them just defy the imagination.

I'm always amazed when stand-offs occur like this. In your case, you can't just choose to hear better but the woman in front of you can choose to make herself better understood by offering a view of her face. How anyone can fail to see the correct solution here is beyond me. I've encountered another interesting case where wheelchair athletes argued for better funding for their equipment because it was a requirement of their participation while at the same time arguing against better funding for guides for blind athletes because they claimed that was a totally different issue.

Anyway, I am so glad you stood up for your rights in this case and it definitely highlights one reason why the 'right' to conceal one's face is absurd. I am concerned about this law, however, since there are very rare cases where face covering might have more important considerations than modesty.

Do you know how many people plunk a form in front of a blind person and ask them to sign beside each of the spaces marked by an 'x'? It is incredibly stupid, but it's often difficult for people to adjust to different ways of communicating the same ideas. Obviously many people need to learn to make these adjustments, but I'm not certain that they are all idiots.

More of a side note here, but lip readers are not as rare as you might think. A lot of people who are hard of hearing rely on lip reading, it's more of a 50/50 between their reduced hearing and limited lip reading skills. Most of the time you won't even know lip reading is essential to the person unless, like me, you have a habit of having your hands around your mouth, or perhaps some other habitual behavior that makes it difficult for others to read lips.